Portable electronic devices play an increasingly important role in everyday life. Consumer expectations have increased to the point that portable electronic devices are routinely subjected to conditions that would have previously been the death-knell for electronic devices. For example, consumers now expect that routine exposure of the electronic device to water and dust not impact the functionality of the device. For electronic devices having a multitude of input and output ports, exposure to water or dust can be potentially catastrophic, resulting in failure of the port, or worse yet, failure of the entire device.